A food storage container that provides a relatively air tight seal with a snap-on tight cover relatively well known in the art. Usually these containers are made of one of the many plastic materials giving them a certain degree of flexibility. The nature of the plastic, however, usually results in opaque or almost opaque container such that the material stored in the container or the "fullness" of the container is not visible without removing the lid or cover. In some instances, a "window" has been left in the frosting to provide a view of the contents.
Attempts to indicate storage dates short of actual marking on the container have met with little commercial success probably for several reasons. Generally speaking the dating method is relatively complex and in at least one case required the addition of a paper strip or the like. In at least two other instances a dial type indicator was affixed to the side of the container so that a month could be indicated by the dial indicator while the day of the month was referenced by the lid being rotated to a particular index mark. A variation on this last device teaches placing a first indicia on the container, which may be the days of the week or the days of the month, while a second indicia is placed on the lid of the container. The second indicia would be the months of the year. The two indicia were so arranged that when the month was aligned with a particular day of the month the remaining months are displaced so that it was not possible to have two conflicting dates.
As can be seen the existing devices are rather complex. In the first instance, that of the dial, the dial can very easily be displaced by one or several months thereby losing its value. In the second instance, it is necessary to align the dates very carefully so that there would be no confusion between the positioning of the two indicia.
The present invention has as an object embodying a dating scheme in a food container such that the date is readily visible to the user and such that confusion between several dates is not present.
It is also an object of this invention to provide a food storage container that has at least a portion of the container constructed of substantially transparent material so that the user is aware of the contents of the container.
It is still a further object of the invention to provide a food storage container that has a continuously curved inner surface so that withdrawal of food products from the container is eased when a spoon is used.